Harshit Rana celebrated his maiden Test team call-up by rattling Assam with a fiery opening spell but keeper-batter Sumit Ghadigaonkar’s unbeaten 120 took the visitors to a respectable 264 for 6 at stumps on the opening day of a group D Ranji Trophy match.

The fifth wicket stand between right-hander Ghadigaonkar and seasoned Sib Shankar Roy (59) yielded 164 runs before Rana (4/62 in 15 overs) came for his final spell to break the stand but Delhi were guilty of extremely slow over-rate with 76 overs being sent during the day.

It was largely due to another inexplicable decision by the chief selector-head coach pair of Gursharan Singh and Sarandeep Singh of fielding four pacers but only Rana with his bounce and movement along with debutant Money Grewal (1/42 in 13 overs) stood out. Himanshu Chauhan (0/47) and left-armer Siddhant Sharma (0/36) didn’t cause any trouble for the two in-form Assam batters.